Updated 1:27pm 12 February 2012:

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Nick McCarthy

Nick McCarthy

Villa fans urged to allow plenty of time for travel to Stoke match

VILLA fans who are travelling to the Britannia Stadium on Boxing Day to watch the clash with Stoke City are being urged to allow extra time for travel before and after the match.Read

Tipton former soldier to carry London 2012 Olympic torch

A FORMER West Midland soldier who was seriously injured in Iraq has been selected to be a torchbearer at the London 2012 Olympics.Read

A charity football match raises £1,800 for an Erdington hospice

A CHARITY football match in aid of the John Taylor Hospice has raised more than £1,800.Read

Sutton Coldfield's 149-year-old rail station opens its new £2million lifts

NETWORK Rail has unveiled £2 million of improvements at Sutton Coldfield’s 149-year-old railway station.Read

Anti-phone mast campaigner from Great Barr touts own land for alternative tower

A CAMPAIGNER has enraged his neighbours by helping them to win a battle against the installation of a mobile phone tower on their road – only to bid for it to be erected on his own land instead.Read

In Pictures: Fans proud as Birmingham City bow out of Europa League

THE European dream may be over but Birmingham City fans were anything but blue as they finally put their passports away.Read

Special report: Teachers among thousands in Birmingham to receive charity food parcels

TEACHERS are among those turning to a Birmingham charity which has seen a shocking 123 per cent surge in families seeking help to feed their children in the run-up to Christmas. Read

Jaguar donates cash to Birmingham children's hospice

JAGUAR has pledged £8,000 to a scheme that helps the siblings of children who are receiving care at a Midlands Hospice.Read

New homes meeting for Erdington councillors

The homes will be built in the back gardens of other homes. The meeting will be at St Margaret’s Church, Jarvis Road, at 7.30pm on Wednesday.Read

Plane in the road stops traffic near Birmingham Airport

SHOCKED drivers were held up by a plane in the middle of the Coventry Road yesterday.Read

Midland housing associations join forces against illegal money lenders

Bromford Living, Midland Heart and Wolverhampton Homes have launched the campaign to send a clear message that loan sharks and illegal money lenders will not be tolerated.Read

Sutton Coldfield kids to help raise speed awareness

Pupils from Hollyfield School were invited to see how officers were tackling speeding near to the school.Read

Sutton Coldfield’s Mall shopping centre to stage Christmas light switch on

Father Christmas will be switching the lights on and there will be music from the BRMB stage.Read

Yardley killer Karla Biddle - who stabbed love rival 56 times - found working in cadets kitchen with knives

The Prison Service is investigating whether Karla Biddle breached the terms of the licence which allowed her out of prison by attending a wedding in the Irish Republic ahead of her official release from jail.Read

Civil Aviation Authority lines up cheap fares to fly Comtel passengers back from India

The Mail revealed earlier this week that one plane full of passengers had to hand over £20,000 in cash to fund part of their journey back to Birmingham Airport after a Comtel Air flight was grounded in Austria because of cash flow problems. The 180 travellers had endured a four-day delay to catch their return flight from Amritsar, in India. Austrian-registered Comtel cancelled all its flights between Amritsar and Birmingham on Thursday when Skyjet in Essex said it had filed for bankruptcy. Passengers who are still stranded are being offered special rates on BMI, which the UK Civil Aviation Authority agreed to refund. Comtel said it was owed money by Skyjet UK, one of its travel agents, and had not been able to pay its carrier for two weeks as a result. A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said: “We are organising special fares on BMI flights back to England that they will be able to take and then claim money back from the Civil Aviation Authority to repay for that.”Read

Civil Aviation Authority has stepped in to fly home airline's stranded Birmingham passengers

Skyjet, which sold tickets for Comtel flights between Birmingham and India ceased trading yesterday afternoon.Read

Comtel Air passengers are promised refunds by majority shareholder

ALMOST 200 Birmingham-bound airline passengers who handed over £20,000 in cash after being “held to ransom” on the runway have been promised refunds.Read

Midland passengers held to 'ransom' by airline

FURIOUS plane passengers were forced to hand over 23,400 euros (around £20,000) in cash to get back to Birmingham last night after enduring a four-day delayRead

Crooks target flooded Streetly homes

CALLOUS thieves posed as council officials to steal property from outside homes hit by flood water.Read

Pregnant woman cut free from her car in Bordesley.

Two fire crews from Highgate station cut the woman free from the overturned car in Derby Street just before 3pm yesterday. She was treated for back and head injuries.Read

Author Profile

Nick McCarthy was born and raised in Birmingham and he joined the Birmingham Mail in 2007. He joined the weekly Sutton Coldfield News in 2004 and qualified as a senior journalist in 2006. Before working as a journalist he completed an undergraduate degree in sport and a masters degree in sociology.